He turns fishers of men into shephards

Large Plates 

Finding, Thanksgiving bike fiascos, Portuguese exchange, Sunday morning miracles, and some crazy transfer news!

This week was CRAZY. We didn't have a ton of people we were teaching, because a couple of them got baptized, and then the other people we were teaching were too busy so we had to start teaching them. That meant that we did tons and tons of finding this week. Most of our finding in this area comes from knocking doors, which I don't mind. It's tricky in this area, though, because the Hispanics are harder to find. We either find an apartment complex with a lot of Americans, or one with a lot of Brazilians, and a few Hispanics. We tend to go to the Brazilian/Hispanic neighborhoods. It's been fun though! I've actually taught a lot of lessons in Portuguese, or maybe portuñol, but either way it's fun. 

Thanksgiving was also this week! Holidays on the mission are definitely strange. This Thanksgiving was basically just a normal proselytizing day, but with a little bit of flexibility. It was also the fist day Sister Peterson and I tried out our "new" bikes! I say new, because they are new for us. But they are certainly not new bikes. We're borrowing them from members until we finish our missions. Long story short, an ordinary 10 mile bike ride turned into a bit of an adventure, which included trudging through the wilderness of Florida, sprinting down busy roads in the dark for 20 seconds at a time, and a flat tire when we still had miles to go. Some Elders were so kind and drove to us and swapped one of their bikes so we could ride the rest of the way home. And then, when we got home, they had left a gigantic pecan pie on our doorstep! 

This Saturday, I got to exchange in the Portuguese area, which was so much fun. It was fun to practice my Portuguese with them, and help the sisters learn and grow a bit more! We went to 2 churrascos (Brazilian barbecues) and a Brazilian bakery! Once again, Latin food is so much better than American food. We ended off the day with Davi's baptism! He's someone the Portuguese Elders taught. It was such a good day, and you could say I definitely fell in love with Brazilian culture. 

Speaking of Brazilian culture, yesterday marks 1 year since I found a Portuguese Book of Mormon in my apartment, way back in training. Yesterday was also the day I finished that very book. My intention wasn't to finish it in a year, or in any specific amount of time, for that matter. I just wanted to read it to help me learn Portuguese, and that it did. It's kind of poetic that it worked out that I finished it in exactly a year, though!

The biggest miracle of this week was definitely Sunday. Graciela and Juseli's entire family came with them to church. We were expecting a couple of family members to accompany them, but no. Everyone wanted to come. And they all came and sat in the middle and loved church. Hermano Amyradakis gave the perfect talk about seeking first the Kingdom of God, and I think it really helped our new friends! Also, not only did their family come to church, but 2 other really awesome families! Hernan, who we were teaching a while ago, came with his kids and stayed for both hours. And, a family who Sister Peterson met, while I was in the Portuguese area, came too! Everyone loved it. 

This week was full of a lot of rejection, just due to the nature of us knocking on so many doors. But, it was possibly the most joyful week I have had on my mission. I just felt so filled with love. My favorite part of the mission is getting to know people, learning to love them, and falling in love with their stories and their culture and their food. 

The last thing I'm gonna tell you about before I write my Small Plates is transfers. Transfers are on Tuesday, but we don't know if/where we're going until Sunday night. I had a few ideas and lots of hopes for what would be happening to me, come transfer time. I really wanted to stay in this area and help teach and baptized Graciela and Juseli's family, and keep working with Rosalba and Hernan. Honestly I think all of them could be baptized in the next transfer. I've also loved being in mission leadership. I love helping the other missionaries learn and grow, and I love being in close communication with President and Sister Schmeil. If I had to leave, I was hoping to go serve in Portuguese work. President and I have talked about it a few times and he liked the idea. Speaking Portuguese terrifies me, but I knew that if I got put in Portuguese work, that Heavenly Father would help me. 

So, those were kind of the two options I've been fiddling with in my mind these days. Then, last night, as I was about to start reading the last chapter of the Portuguese Book of Mormon, actually, the APs called. 

They thanked me for my service as an STL, and told me I would be training. That's not what I expected, but I told them I was willing to do it. They then explained to me that my training would be a bit different. They said that I would be re-opening an area that hasn't had missionaries in it for a little while, and that I would be moving up to Merritt Island, by Cocoa Beach. And, that I would be serving in an English unit. My heart dropped. I love language work. I love culture. And I have to leave that all behind. 

Now, I'm not trying to be dramatic here. I'm honestly still wrapping my head around all of it. I'm scared, for sure. It's going to be a completely new experience. I've never served in English work before. Not only am I switching to English, but I'm getting a trainee and we're moving way far away from where I've ever served. And I don't get to be an STL anymore. Some tears were definitely shed. 

That being said, I'm excited. I told President I wanted to learn and grow, and although I imagined that meant he would put me in a new language and not in my native language. I know these next few months of training are going to be a learning process for sure. But hey! I get to live by the beach! Cape Canaveral is literally in my ward boundaries. There are going to be Cruise Ships parked in my ward. Crazy, huh? 

Small Plates 

He turns fishers of men into shephards 

It's funny, you know. Heavenly Father really likes to teach me. And I'm grateful for it. 

I was re-reading one of my books the other day and I learned something new from the author. I knew right then that that was what I was going to write about in my email for the week. 

The thing is, with these emails, I always learn more from writing them than any of you could possibly learn from reading them. I haven't even written it yet but I know Heavenly Father is about to teach me. I'm just letting the rest of you join me for the ride.

So, here's what I learned from the book. When the Savior called Peter to his apostolic ministry, he called a fisherman to be a fisher of men. Essentially He was saying, "Peter. You have strengths that can be used for my work. Come, and I will teach you to use what you already have and who you already are, to build up my Kingdom."

Peter worked alongside the Savior for a long time, and learned a lot from Him. He fine-tuned his strengths, and he surely acquired a few new ones along the way.

He was transformed from Peter the fisherman to Peter the Fisher of Men. He found a new, better version of himself. One that the Savior helped him discover. 

As the Savior's earthly ministry came to a close, He met once again with His disciples. He asked them a simple, yet thought-provoking question: 

"Lovest thou me?"

He asked it three times, too. He wanted them to be sure of their answer. 

"Yea, Lord."

What did he say next? He told Peter, the fisherman and Fisher of Men, to feed His sheep. Peter wasn't a shepherd. He was a fisherman. Yet, the Savior invited Him to join Him in His work, in His way.

Christ's first call for Peter was a call to become a better version of Peter. 

And that's what he did. Peter learned and grew, and strengthened his strengths with Christ's help. 

Christ doesn't just see us for who we are, though. He sees us for who we can become. He knows we can become versions of ourselves far better than who we are right now. He knows we can become even as He is. 

That's what He wants for us. So, that's what He does for us. He helps us learn and grow and He puts us in situations that make us stretch. He helps us move forward and upward. That's how I see it, at least. Helping Peter change from a Fisherman to a Fisher of Men was helping him move forward. He was improving. It's true. 

But that's not all Christ wanted of Peter. He wanted Him to move onward and upward. That's done through exalting grace. 

That's what He's doing with me, too. He's helped me move forward, so much. I know I've grown more in this last year than I have in my entire life. He has strengthened my strengths. Now it's time to discover some more of my weaknesses, and turn them into strengths, too. The Lord wants me to do His work in His way, not in my way. I'm not sure what that is going to look like. After all, I'm just a fisherman. I don't know how to herd Sheep. But I want to learn, because I want to be like Him who teaches me. 

Be still and know that He is God

Large Plates 

So so busy

It was another busy week!!

We started off the week with 2 zone conferences! The first one ended up being in President's house because the power went out at the church haha. It was so fun though! We all ate lunch in the dark, with nothing but the light from our phones to help us see our Publix sandwiches. After lunch, we headed over to President's house. We got to give a training with the Orlando South Zone Leaders and it went really well. Doing a training in the house was fun because it felt like we were teaching a family home evening. It was also so fun because Orlando South is my old zone, so I got to see all of my best friends. I miss them a lot. 

The Zone Conference for the Orlando West Zone went well too! I feel like our training was way better, because we had more time to prepare and to pray and think about what our zone needed to hear. Most of my Small Plates thoughts come from things I studied in preparation for that zone conference, or things I said during the training, or things that I studied after because I wanted to understand things better afterwards. 

After that, we had interviews with President! It was good to be able to have a one-on-one conversation with him and talk about what's going on in my life. President Schmiel is so awesome. 

From interviews we went straight to my old apartment to do exchanges with the Buenaventura Hermanas!! I got to go to my old area with my old companion for a day! It was a really great exchange. The night of the exchanges, we got to go to a ward activity and ward coordination and I saw so many of my favorite members from that ward!! It was really hard to leave that area without much of a goodbye because we got transfer news so late, so it was really good for me to be able to go back and see everyone! I surprised and confused a lot of people haha. 

We also got to have a lesson again with Ktheleim, someone we had been teaching back when I was in that area! It went really well. I love her a lot and hope she keeps progressing!

Hermana Jackson and Hermana Parley are doing such a great job in that area and there is no one else I would rather have as a replacement than Hermana Parley. She's super sweet and ready to work!

The rest of the week was mostly just finding new people to teach, which was a lot of fun! And our friend German and his family and Hernan and his family came to church! 

Small Plates 

Be still and know that He is God

This week I learned a little something about just how awesome our Heavenly Father is. 

Something our zone has been struggling a lot with is finding motivation even when we don't see immediate results for our efforts. I've felt the same way, in a sense. 

While we were giving our training, words were put in my mouth that I know I definitely needed to hear, and I hope the other people in the room needed to hear as well. It was something to this effect:

"At the end of the day, we just need to humble ourselves and recognize that our Loving Heavenly Father is too omnipotent and omniscient for us to get in his way."

Understanding just how wise, powerful, and LOVING our Heavenly Father is helps us have so much more faith, hope and trust in His plan. 

He wants us to be instruments in His hands. He wants us to try our best. But He also knows and understands how imperfect we are. And that's okay. 

I came across this scripture this week:

"Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.

Behold, thou art Nephi, and I am God."

That's all God asks of us. He asks that we declare His word with unwearyingness and have faith that He will do the rest. After all, I am only Sister Daugs, and He is God. 

He's in charge. He has control. And everything is going to work out exactly as it is supposed to. And He just loves us enough to let us participate in this great work! 

Life isn't always easy. It's not always fun. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed because almost everything is out of our control. But that's okay. 

All we have to do is, "cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."

I can promise His arm will be revealed. If we trust in His plan, we will see His hand in everything. All we have to do is the best we can at the things that are within our control. And then stand still, and watch, and wait, for the miracles.

What is truth?

 Large Plates 

The new family we're teaching, service at the Salvation Army, brunch, transfer news and member meals

As far as pday goes, we didn't really do anything too notable haha. It was still super fun though! We played games at the park and I got some Jersey Mike's and I got a ball out of a tree so the Elders all called me Hermana Squirrel haha.

We started teaching a super cute family this week! Pamela & Luis and their kids!! They actually live in our apartment building haha. They just moved in so when we went over they didn't even have furniture yet! We stood by the kitchen counter and just talked about faith and got to know them! They're really cute.

Our weekly service at the Bishops storehouse got canceled because there weren't enough orders. We were pretty sad about it because Storehouse is super fun and Elder Holladay, the manager, is one of the best human beings on this planet. Also it would be the last time this transfer! We called up a member of the stake who does a ton of service to see if he could hook us up with something. He coordinated with the Salvation Army and we got to go make a thousand sandwiches for them to give to the homeless! It was super fun and the best part was when Elder Holladay showed up!! He had some food from the Storehouse that he needed to give them. They told us they needed help unloading a truck and when we went over Elder Holladay was there! It made my whole day, and everyone else's too. 

We invited Elder Holladay to come to lunch with us! We went to a cute brunch place and I had a super yummy waffle. At the beginning, Elder Holladay excused himself to go wash his hands and apparently while he was up he told the waitress he was going to buy all of our food. We were all super surprised at the end when we asked for our checks and the waitress said he had already paid! He's too nice & now we owe him one haha. I don't know if I've already mentioned this but Elder Holladay is going to be the new Orlando Temple President starting this summer! I'm excited to be able to go to the temple and know the president so personally.

Also a side note: the same day Elder Holladay paid for our lunch a nice lady paid for our ice cream! We were very surprised because that just doesn't happen in Florida haha.

This Friday we got transfer news! We got a call from President Ashcraft at around 10 a.m. and he told Hermana Morris that she's going to be moving all the way across the mission to be a Sister Training Leader in an English area. We were so blown away. We had a few predictions for where she could possibly go but that was not one of them haha. She's going to do so good! I'm very excited for her. And she gets to live by the beach!!

As for me, I will be staying here in Buena Ventura and I will be TRAINING! I'm super excited!! It's going to be a lot of responsibilities and a lot of pressure, but it's going to be a lot of fun. I still don't know who my trainee is, I'll find out Tuesday morning when I meet her!!

On Saturday, we ate so much food. We had a member meal at 1:30 (where I ate enough food to last me a whole day), another at 4:30, and another at 6. I thought I might die. I changed dresses between the first two so I could wear a dress with pockets. Why? So I could put a zip lock bag in each pocket and put food in them when people weren't looking haha. (Shoutout to Aunt Rachie for the idea) I left the second meal with ⅓ of a burrito in my pocket haha. We got to the third meal a little late but it ended up being okay because the member forgot she was supposed to feed us haha. This meal was with the Elders too and they got there first, fully expecting and hoping for a meal. This member is kind of a crazy old lady so she forgets and gets distracted a ton. She said it was nice to meet me for the first time even though I've talked to her almost every Sunday for 4 and a half months haha. Needless to say, I was grateful she forgot about feeding us cause I thought I might throw up right then and there. And we had leftovers in the car for the Elders' dinner haha.

Small Plates 

What is truth?

This week in my studies, I learned a lot about truth. About what it is, and how to find it, and why it matters. 

There's an old story about a bunch of blind men trying to find the truth. They come across an elephant and do their best to make sense of what they observe. One man, grabbing the tail, notes that an elephant is like a rope. Another man, touching the trunk, determines an elephant is like a large snake. The third man runs into the leg and concludes an elephant is like a tree. The last man finds the tusk and is certain an elephant is like a spear. 

Are any of them wrong? No. Are any of them right? Absolutely not. So how should they find out the whole truth? 

They could discuss their observations and come to a more informed conclusion. They might determine that an elephant is like a tree with a rope hanging from an unreachable branch. Or that it was like a large snake holding a spear. Those conclusions might be more accurate, but they still aren't the whole truth.

This is how relative truth works. We, as humans, are incapable of understanding everything there is to know. But as we observe more of the world around us, the things we do understand become more true. As we learn more about the human body, or about human nature, our truth changes. As we learn more about the universe, our truth changes. 

There's a difference between relative truth and absolute truth, though. Relative truth changes as we come to understand more. Absolute truth doesn't change. Ever. 

In the case of our story, the absolute truth would be this: "an elephant is an elephant." 

No matter what the blind men observe about it, it will always be an elephant. 

We can increase our understanding of relative truths by discussing with other people their conceptions of truth. But if we want to understand the absolute truth, we need to ask someone who knows the whole story. Those blind men would be better off asking a person who can see the whole elephant. 

They can still make their own observations of the elephant after the seeing man told them what it was. But their observations wouldn't change the truth. It would just strengthen their belief in the absolute truth. 

The same concept applies for us. We can talk with as many other people as we want about what is true. We will certainly learn more by doing so. But we will never know the whole truth until we ask the Creator of Truth. 

There are so many absolute truths that are essential to understand to have happiness in this life and the life to come. 

I could list a hundred absolute truths we should know, but for the sake of illustrating the principle at hand, I want you to think about this question:

Do you know that God loves you?

Any person could try to articulate God's love, but no human definition or explanation will ever amount to the witness that comes straight from the source. If we ask God if He loves us, He'll tell us the absolute truth. Spoiler alert: the answer is YES. But don't take the evidence from me. Go ask Him. He knows better than I do, anyway. 

And then once you have received the absolute truth through the Spirit, every observation you make from that point forward won't change the truth. Rather, it will increase your understanding of the truth. 

The truth won't change because of you. But you will change because of the truth. 

You'll see something beautiful and you'll remember something you already know. God loves you. 

You'll receive an answer to a prayer and you'll remember. God loves you. 

You'll meet someone who will change your life and you'll remember. God loves you.

There's so many things in this life that testify of the most important absolute truth there is. 

God loves you. And that will never change. 

Saying goodbye to Hermana Morris in the last Sunday in the 

Buena Ventura Ward.